Needless to say, I appreciate this, and the general warmth of the international Lotus community very much, and I don't just say this out of personal opportunism. It's a pity that I am not able to attend conferences like this anymore, but I definitely still follow them remotely. The 80 pint Guinness treat reminds me of an experience I had in Ireland before. Having tried Guinness a few times, I couldn't help but find it disgusting. In my quest to find out why the Irish like it so much, I asked someone who appeared to me as a senior drinker of the brew why they love it so much, to which he replied:

"Well, son. You have to drink the right Guinness. The differences in brewing conditions result in big deviations in its resulting taste and experience. You probably just had a bad Guinness."

One giant sip later came the management summary:

"Let's put it this way. A bad Guinness can take you out for a week, whereas a good point pint of Guinness takes you out for 2 days".

Point taken, I'll stick to Heineken.

I'm getting of the subject, but here's one more. During our holiday in Ireland we rented a car and managed to damage it quite badly. A deep scratch and dent on the entire left side of the car made it hard not to notice. Upon returning the car, we obviously feared the fine we would get as the inspector walked around the car. To our surprise, he went "All right and good mates, have a safe trip back". Laid-back, humurous, and able to put things in perspective. I wish more of the world was like this.